An aid worker diary from Darfur, Sudan: real stories, random observations and occasional rants on the lives of Darfur’s two million displaced people and the somewhat bewildered humanitarian agencies who are trying to help them.
Sleepless in Sudan is just another website on just another violent conflict in Africa – but uncensored, direct and without the sugar-coating that the tightly controlled and highly politicized environment demands from the official sources.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

A trip to the big city – I’m off to Khartoum for a few days, land of inflated rental prices and overpriced Pringles, for a few days. Just the thought of the air-conditioning, the embassy parties, and the Swiss chocolate at Amarat Centre make me swoon. Aaaah, civilisation!

A metropolis maybe, but glamorous it is not: at Khartoum airport, it seems there is never anyone who bothers to clear away the wreckage of past plane crashes. As we land today, we glide over the crushed body the Marsland wreck that crashed earlier this month (an aborted take-off that killed somewhere between 3 and 12 people depending on who you ask). I suppose its an improvement over El Geneina in West Darfur, where about three different wrecks are scattered along the sides of the runway, not exactly a reassuring sight for a nervous flyer like me.

The heat wave when you step off the plane is a bit like a slow, wet slap across the face. 'Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Khartoum, where the local time is 5.30pm and the outside temperature is 41 degrees Celsius'. The only thought my weary brain can produce in this state is “Time to hit the parties…”